Covid-19 keeps censured lawyer working

A Feilding lawyer who admitted improperly witnessing documents more than 70 times has avoided suspension, partly because of the coronavirus crisis’ effect on legal services.

The Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has censored Kirsten Harper, a principal at Treadwell Gordon in Feilding, and ordered her to pay costs of $21,833 after a hearing last month.

Harper, who has previously worked for Crown Law, had admitted 78 breaches over a sixyear period while working at Barltrop Graham in Feilding.

Most of the breaches were for improperly witnessing documents.

In its decision, the tribunal said Harper’s actions amounted to her putting ‘‘client convenience’’ before the rules.

She would post documents to clients she knew, get them to sign, then witness the signature when the documents were posted back.

That involved her providing false certifications that the declarations had been done while she was present.

Her misconduct took placed from May 2010 to December 2016.

She made no attempt to hide what she did, openly asking clients not to have their signatures witnessed until documents were returned.

Her misconduct was not found until she left Barltrop Graham, taking many clients with her.

Barltrop Graham discovered the discrepancies, passing the information to the New Zealand Law Society’s complaints service.

Harper did not accept it was a normal practice, because she would only do it with well-known clients to ensure any risks were low.

The tribunal said documents had to be witnessed in certain ways to prevent fraud through the wrongful use of documents.

Although Harper’s actions amounted to ‘‘moderately serious misconduct’’, a suspension was not appropriate. No-one had been harmed, the offending was historical, she was never deceitful, had no previous history of malpractice and had already suffered reputational damage.

She felt she had to resign from two community boards to minimise any risk of fallout affecting them, and she also had strong testimonials and references, the tribunal said.

The coronavirus crisis also had to be considered, the tribunal said. Covid-19 had created ‘‘challenging times’’.